Source: The Lonely Conservative
The tone of that whole clip could have been changed with a mention of the word "competition." If the rest of the world makes advances in science/technology, that's a good thing for everyone and the US should try to do better.
But Holdren isn't talking about competing with the achievements of the rest of the world. He's talking about accepting them as achievements that Americans can't and/or won't try to improve upon.
What a profoundly un-American outlook.
